


With an Edge to His Voice

by Suukarin



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU Swap, Gen, Underfell Papyrus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-23 04:04:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8313337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suukarin/pseuds/Suukarin
Summary: When the Great and Terrible Papyrus finds himself stuck with an even lazier copy of his brother, he didn't think this lazybones could be... interesting.(Rating will change once I figure out how far I want to take the shipping. Currently non-romantic.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An exercise in non-shippy Kedgeup, I suppose.

There is no question in his mind that this is still Sans. He’s just…  _ softer _ around the edges, for lack of a better word; his simple blue hoodie lays flat over his ribs, and the spiked collar normally found around his brother’s neck is conspicuously absent. Even his teeth are smooth and disarmingly flat, with no hint of a gold tooth in sight as this not-brother bites into a ketchup-smothered hot dog.

But as Papyrus puts a hand on his hip, scowling at this brother impostor, Sans scratches at his ribs, looking over at him with a lazy grin from the couch.

He’s definitely no more active than his  _ actual _ brother.

“I  _ asked _ you a question,” Papyrus snaps, red eyes flashing in agitation. “What did you do with my  _ real _ brother?”

“Hey, that’s a great question, buddy,” Sans chuckles, easily pushing the rest of his hot dog past his teeth. “You know, I was just about to ask that, myself. Where’s Pap, hm?”

Papyrus snorts.

“And why should I tell you where your infantile brother is?” he sneers, shifting his weight back as he crosses his arms over his black breastplate. “Even if I  _ did _ know where he was. His own damn fault for going  _ missing. _ ”

“Hey now, pal,” Sans smiles, folding his arms over his chest. “There’s no need for name-calling, here. It was just a simple question, yeah? Besides, I could say the same for  _ your _ bro, couldn’t I?”

Papyrus narrows his eyes at Sans, noticing that the easy smile on the smaller skeleton’s face never flickers, not even at the corners… If nothing else, he can credit this Sans with keeping a much better poker face than his own brother. 

Even if the trade-off meant he was more useless to him.

“Well,” Papyrus huffs, strutting to the door like it’s his house they’re in. “It’s clear  _ you _ won’t be of any help for getting me back home, or at least to my brother. Continue doing whatever useless thing it is you do best. There must be  _ someone _ in this world who’s  _ competent _ enough to do what I tell them to.”

“I’m gonna have to stop you there, bud.”

And just like that, Sans is suddenly in front of him, as though he’d been standing there the whole time. Papyrus takes a quick step back, then snorts before pushing past Sans.

“A cute trick,” he scoffs, “that would be more intimidating if I hadn’t  _ seen it before _ . Now  _ out of my way. _ ”

“I think you’re forgetting a key detail here.”

He  _ doesn’t _ expect to suddenly fall face-first into the door, crashing into it with a hard  _ thud. _ With a fierce growl, he turns back to look at Sans--

That easy smile from before is forced now, tight in the corners and stretched garishly wide. Where before vacant white pupils floated in hollow sockets, he only sees a bright cyan glow from Sans’ left eye, brighter than any red light his own brother had displayed before.

Papyrus tries to stand, but as Sans seemingly pushes one hand against the air down to the ground, the taller skeleton slides down, snarling the whole way as Sans approaches him.

“ _ What did you do to me? _ ” Papyrus seethes, still struggling to push himself any higher than on his knees.

“Just making sure you don’t go creating more trouble than you already have,” Sans shrugs, stopping in front of Papyrus and tracing a finger along his jagged jawline. “See, I don’t know how things work in  _ your _ world, but… you gotta realize that you’re not  _ in _ your world anymore. And normally I wouldn’t  _ care, _ except that as soon as you got here…  _ my _ bro went missing.”

“I fail to see how that’s  _ my _ problem!”

“Oh, you keep that up and it’s gonna  _ be _ your problem. See, if I don’t have Pap… well.”

Even the blue glow fades away, and Sans’ eyes go hollow in a way he’s never seen before… and even he, the Great and Terrible Papyrus, can’t fight the shiver from crawling down his spine.

“If I don’t have my bro,” Sans hums, “then I have  _ nothing left to lose _ .”

Papyrus holds his posture, eyes wide despite his scowl, despite every bone in his body telling him to  _ get out-- _

The weight that held him down vanishes suddenly, and both Sans’ hands are back in his pockets as the smaller skeleton backs off, smile relaxing once more.

“So, we’re gonna do this  _ my _ way,” Sans shrugs as Papyrus cautiously stands back up. “Y’know,  _ not _ terrorizing the rest of the Underground like you tried to do before I found ya, heh. Find out where our bros are, and then get everyone back where they’re supposed to be. Sound like a plan?”

Despite the unsettled feeling still lingering in what would be his stomach, Papyrus narrows his eyes at Sans.

“...sounds more like you’re trying to boss around an esteemed member of the Royal Guard,” he finally snaps, crossing his arms.

“Maybe in  _ your _ world. But we’re not  _ in _ your world, remember? So as long as we’re stuck here together…”

He swears he can see a flash of cyan as Sans’ eyes open, but it’s in between blinks, and when he opens his eyes again, only soft white pupils stare up at him.

“...we’re gonna play by  _ my rules. _ Got it?”

Papyrus finds it in himself to snort, sticking his chin out at the smaller skeleton to leer down at him a little better.

“ _ Fine, _ ” he scoffs, flicking the lower edge of his scarf out flippantly at Sans. “I’ll play your little game…”

He pauses for a moment before letting a sneer creep back to his face.

“As long as it suits me, that is,” he finishes with a pompous grin, sticking a crimson tongue out over his jagged teeth.

Sans snorts, and Papyrus watches with amusement as Sans shuffles back over to the couch, collapsing onto it again with a dramatic fall.

If nothing else, he decides, this will certainly at least be...  _interesting._


	2. Chapter 2

“ _ Why _ are we going on this pointless excursion, again?”

“What, you think I keep a high-tech lab in the basement? We're going to see the Royal Scientist to try and get things sorted and get  _ you _ back to… wherever it is you're from. Who knows, it might even bring my bro back, too.”

Papyrus snorts, crossing his ankles as he stares across the boat at Sans. Sans, for his part, swings his legs off the side of the boat, but never quite enough for his slippers to fly off his feet.

If his slippers  _ did _ fly off his feet -- and Papyrus can’t stop the idle thought from popping up -- would this Sans even notice? Hell, if he did, would he even  _ care? _ For as lazy as his own brother was, at least  _ his _ Sans would find the energy to be agitated about losing a shoe…  

Papyrus straightens his back as a feeling easily mistaken for melancholy touches his heart as a passing glance.

* * *

“W-Wow, Sans, you weren't, um, weren't kidding, f-for once.”

Papyrus’ arms are crossed over his chest as he scowls down at this timid, shrinking approximation of Alphys, who can't seem to stop shaking as she stares back.

“C'mon, Alphys,” Sans drawls, with the same lazy grin that the taller skeleton has already grown sick of seeing. “Would I ever joke about something as serious about my bro going missing? You should know me better than that.”

“Y-Yeah, I know! I just, um… didn't expect  _ this _ Papyrus to really be, um… exactly the way you described him.”

Papyrus raises a browbone at Sans, who glances back with a half-hearted shrug.

“Well now I'm  _ curious, _ ” he sneers, pulling his teeth back into something like a toothy grin. “ _ What, _ exactly, did you say about me, hm?”

“Oh, you know,” Sans smiles, unfazed. “Just the truth. That you're, y’know...”

“That I'm… Great? Terrible?  _ Magnificent? _ ”

“Weird and edgy were the words  _ I _ used, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.”

Papyrus growls, eye twitching. 

How very…  _ Sans.  _

“I-In any case,” Alphys chimes in, twiddling her fingers. “W-we're, that is,  _ I'm _ going to… to try and get a, a magical signature off of you. Th-That way, we,  _ I _ can b-backtrace it to… to maybe find how you got here. So that we can… we can try to find a way to get you home!”

She lets out a nervous tittering laugh, but it quickly dies out as Papyrus narrows his red eyes at the scientist. 

“Well, spit it out already,” he finally snaps, ignoring the surprised squeak that Alphys emits at his sharp tone. “What do you need from me?”

“R-Right, um!! Th-this way, please!”

Alphys scurries over to her workstation, quickly digging through the mess that is her desk. With a chuckle, Sans follows after, motioning for Papyrus to come along as well.

The thought to stand in place, just to be contrary and difficult, is a very tempting one indeed, but Papyrus also follows, the sharp heels of his boots clacking hard against the tile floor. 

“So what we're gonna do,” Alphys begins, a small tone of excitement in her voice as she holds up a contraption, “is I'm gonna clip this to your finger, and it's -- it's gonna record your magical signature, which I'll then run an algorithm on it to find where, exactly, you fell in from, and--”

Papyrus zones out as soon as the lizard begins explaining the technicalities, and just pulls off his right glove, slapping it over his shoulder as he roughly shoves his hand towards Alphys. 

“Just get on with it,” he snaps, scowling. 

“U-Um, r-right, s… sorry.”

Sans has hopped up onto the desk next to Alphys’ computer, and Papyrus can feel those large, nearly-hollowed sockets trained on him as Alphys clips the small device to his finger. The clip vibrates a little, but he easily ignores the sensation as he decides to instead glare at the Royal Scientist.

“How long until you turn this…  _ test _ into something  _ useful? _ ” he growls, his other hand balled into a fist before he rests it against his hip.

“F-First I have to, um, to… convert the reading into data th-that the, that I can plug into the, uh, the algorithm,” Alphys stutters, shrinking under the taller skeleton’s fierce gaze.”Th-then I have to, to scan the Underground for a, a matchical maging -- er, that is, a matching magical signature, and then, I--”

“So you  _ don’t know. _ ”

“I-It’s not like we get, uh, m-monsters falling in from the, the wrong world on a regular basis,” Alphys huffs, mustering what little courage hasn’t been chased out of her. “I, I’ll do the best I can, and that’s… you’re gonna, um, you’re gonna have to accept that.”

Papyrus snorts, and looks away from the lizard.

“Whatever,” he grumbles, leaning back on his heels. “The sooner I get out of this miserable,  _ saccharine _ little world of yours, the better.”

“Yeah, I’m sure your bro misses you, too.”

Papyrus flicks his gaze back at Sans, but Sans isn’t looking at him; his blank stare is forward, and his legs, which had been swinging a moment before, are now perfectly still.

Something uncomfortable claws inside his chest, and this time, Papyrus can’t push the unfamiliar feeling of being  _ known _ out of his soul.


	3. Chapter 3

Papyrus never thought it could be possible -- but here it is, living proof before his very eyes.

Not for long, though, as he snatches the remote out of Sans’ hand, flicking off the television as quick as he can. Mettaton is aggravating enough to watch in his  _ own _ world, but here, as far as he can tell, the robot idol is even  _ more _ intolerable -- as useless as he is egotistical. How he endured more than a minute of it is a marvel even to himself.

Apparently this Sans has a different way of ignoring Mettaton -- despite how roughly Papyrus yanked the remote from his loose grip, the smaller skeleton continues snoring on the couch, face still plastered in a soft, lazy grin. Looking at that stupid smile infuriates the black-clad skeleton to no end, as if Sans is purposely challenging him with his easy demeanor…

But if Sans is asleep, then there’s no one to stop him from exploring. With a self-satisfied smirk, Papyrus struts first into the kitchen, lowering the dimmer before flicking on the lights.

A soft scowl darkens his face; even when expecting nothing, he can’t help but be…  _ disappointed _ in how normal the kitchen looks. The only thing even mildly out of place is the exorbitantly tall sink next to the fridge, and the small, scrabbling sounds from underneath. Curiosity getting the better of him, Papyrus approaches the sink, curling his hand around the small knob before pulling the door open.

A small, white dog looks up at him from inside, freezing momentarily, but never letting the bone slip out of its jaws. Papyrus blinks, frowns, then closes the door, letting the small dog continue gnawing on its bone before he decides to instead explore the fridge. But as soon as he pulls open the door, several full tupperwares of spaghetti slide out onto the floor, clattering loudly as they scatter across the kitchen.

He tenses, eyes darting quickly towards the doorway as though he expects Sans to already be there -- but he’s still alone, and from the other room, he hears Sans continue his snoring. Satisfied that the other skeleton is still asleep, Papyrus turns his attention to picking up the scattered containers, briefly examining their contents through the sides before pushing them all haphazardly back into the fridge.

For as many containers of spaghetti as there are, he’s surprised to find the fridge neatly divided down the middle -- stacked tupperwares on one side, and on the other, nothing but a single, already-opened bag of popato chisps. 

_ Trash all around, _ he scoffs to himself, shutting the door again before marching back into the living room.  _ Now let’s see if there’s anything more interesting upstairs. _

The steps creak under his weight, but Papyrus scales the staircase quickly enough that it doesn’t matter; a quick glance back reveals that Sans is still fast asleep on the couch. He wonders, for a moment, how someone lazier than his own brother could manage the illusion of intimidation, but shakes the question from his mind as he turns towards the first door upstairs.

For a house so seemingly empty of secrets, he doesn't expect to find the door locked -- not that it matters to the Great and Terrible Papyrus. With a fluid motion, he slips the lockpick out of his glove, and in just a few short, fidgety motions, the door swings open for him.

He doesn't have to look very hard to tell this can't possibly be Sans’ room; everything is too clean, too perfectly organized, to belong to such a slovenly skeleton. But even for how…  _ simple _ this world seemed to him, Papyrus doesn't expect to see action figures on the table, nor the bright red racecar bed in the corner. He approaches the bookshelf, tracing his pointed fingers over the books to better read the titles, and frowns each time he finds a child's book mixed in with the advanced quantum puzzle texts.

“I don't remember you getting permission to be here.”

Papyrus turns, not entirely surprised to find Sans planted squarely in the doorway, eyes wide like he'd never been sleeping at all. The taller skeleton straightens his posture, but not before hooking a finger over the spine of one of the books.

“I don't see why I would need  _ your _ permission to go into a room that's clearly  _ not yours, _ ” Papyrus sneers, hand on his hip as he stares Sans down. “Not that there's anything of  _ interest _ in here worth locking up, anyway. Why even _ bother? _ ”

“Every monster's got a right to privacy, don't they?” Sans shrugs, his smile surprisingly easy. “I'm surprised, actually. I'd figure  _ you, _ of all monsters in  _ this _ Underground, would understand the need to keep certain things private.”

Papyrus narrows his crimson eyes, challenging Sans to go on -- but Sans just goes on smiling, and the taller skeleton could swear his face was carved from stone were it not for the small flicker of his eyelights.

“Hmph,” he finally snorts, easily slipping the book off the shelf and waving it towards Sans. “Privacy or no, I'm sure your _precious brother_ wouldn't mind if I borrowed _one measly book._ _Anything_ to avoid that _imbecile_ you cretins call a _TV star._ ”

“Jeez, sorry you never learned how to have fun ever. Now, if you don't mind, this still isn't your room, so…”

Papyrus snorts, but shoves past Sans on his way out the room, briefly examining the cover. 

Even as he reads the title, he hears the faint sound of magic being cast, and glances back to see a faint blue glow vanish from over the lock.

“Seems a little far to just for a little  _ privacy, _ hm?” Papyrus smirks. “Especially for someone who isn't even here.”

“You know, for someone who can't seem to find anything even  _ tolerable _ about this world, you sure seem awful keen to stick what would be your nose where it doesn't belong.”

“Was that a  _ threat _ , Sans?”

Sans doesn't scowl, not like his brother would -- but there's a frost in his look that freezes him where he stands, if only for a moment, and the cold, empty smile sends a shiver down his spine. 

Still, as he finally pries himself away from his spot on the landing and continues downstairs, Papyrus can't help but let his jagged mouth curve into a sharp grin.

_ So he  _ **_does_ ** _ have something to hide… _

A soft, dark chuckle creeps past his teeth, and he sinks into the couch, not caring about how perfectly uncomfortable it is. As he thumbs through the early pages of the book he's “borrowed,” he can't even bring himself to mind the childish doodles in the margins.

His brother, he could read like a book of his own writing, but  _ this _ Sans…  _ well. _

_ I wonder what's written in  _ **_your_ ** _ pages…? ...I suppose I will find out soon enough, nyeh heh heh. You may be good at keeping secrets, but rest assured, Sans… they will not stay that way for long.  _


End file.
